Iran strikes U.S. allies in Gulf escalation, wedding strike kills four

Six months into a grinding conflict between the United States and Iran, the machinery of retaliation turned again this week as Iranian forces struck American bases across the Gulf — in Jordan, Kuwait, and Bahrain — following U.S. bombardment that included a missile strike on a coastal wedding party that killed two women and two children. The Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil once flowed freely, remains largely closed, and oil prices have climbed past ninety-five dollars a barrel, reminding the world that wars fought between two powers are rarely contained to them. Anal